aroramage |
(#2 Bronzong)
Hey guys, welcome to the last couple of cards in our Top
10 List of the new Phantom Force set! If anyone thought
we weren't going to get around to this guy, well you'd
probably be kidding yourself - it's Eelektrik for Metal
decks, Bronzong!
Clearly not used for his vanilla Hammer In, which only
does 3-for-60, Bronzong is so high on our list cause of
his Ability Metal Links. The idea of this is to use
Bronzong the same way you'd use Eelektrik and bring back
Metal Energy onto one of your Benched Pokemon. While
Metal doesn't have their own Rayquaza-EX, they do have
Dialga-EX and Aegislash-EX, both of which benefit from
Bronzong's Ability. With Dialga-EX, you get to utilize
Full Metal Alch-I mean, Impact, multiple times with
little drawback. In fact, while your Active Dialga-EX is
sending off those Metal Energies to the discard pile,
Bronzong can power up a Benched Dialga-EX to prepare to
take its place. Or better yet, he can throw them onto
Aegislash-EX, whose attack gets stronger with each Metal
Energy!
But why stop there with that kind of combination? Throw
in Battle Compressor from yesterday's review, and you
can dump a bunch of Energy into the discard pile
straight from your deck - thinning it out and giving
Bronzong plenty of Energy to link with! We've got older
cards like Bisharp (NVI) who also love getting tons of
Metal Energy attached to them and benefit greatly from
it!
Bronzong does run into some of the same problems as
Eelektrik does though. A successful Catcher can draw him
out from the Bench for a KO, while Garbodor will just
flat out negate its Ability. And then there's the fact
that he's a Stage 1, meaning you have to run Bronzor in
your deck on top of all the other essentials. Still,
given the popularity of the Rayquaza-EX build, I
wouldn't be surprised if Dialga-EX and Aegislash-EX lead
the charge for Metal decks - all fueled by the power of
Bronzong.
Have I mentioned yet how nice it is that these guys
don't have Fighting Weakness?
Rating
Standard: 4.5/5 (great support to Metal decks that
really needed it)
Expanded: 4.5/5 (works as well as Eelektrik)
Limited: 4/5 (I rank it lower here if only because of
the set-up to meet him is more difficult, but if you're
running a Metal deck, you better have him in it!)
Arora Notealus: I'll be honest, Bronzong is probably one
of the coolest designs from Gen IV, being based off of
Japanese dōtaku, a ceremonial bell that people
used to pray with for a good harvest. There's also a
Japanese myth incorporating a bell that Bronzong and
Bronzor take inspiration from, as well as partial design
aspects from an Aztec god! No wonder he looks cool!
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Otaku |
We wrap up our Top 10 Promising Picks of XY: Phantom
Forces with a double CotD because of scheduling
conflicts. First up is second place (that sounds a bit
confusing). As I keep stating as part of this
introductory blurb, reprint cards were not eligible for
the Top 10 list, which was created through each member
of the review crew submitting their own Top 10 list to
Pojo, who then averages them out to produce the master
Top 10 list we use for the review order. The official
release date for this set in the U.S. was November 5th,
so XY: Phantom Forces cards aren’t tournament
legal until November 21st; however we’ll be scoring them
as if they were.
So the second place pick for this set was Bronzong
(XY: Phantom Forces 61/119; XY Promos
XY21), which to be blunt is basically the Metal
equivalent of the old Eelektrik (BW: Noble
Victories 40/101) that players of Expanded or some
of the older (but still relatively recent) formats
certainly recognize. To really appreciate what
Bronzong brings… yes I’m going to do my normal step
by step reviews, but I’ll also do a head-to-head
comparisons with Eelektrik at the end. The first
thing we’ll cover is the Type: being a Metal-Type at
this moment is good. Is it the best Type in the format?
No, but the Type just was boosted by support (both
direct and indirect) in the latest set, and plenty of
people aren’t used to Metal Weakness being a serious
risk yet, so that is to the Type’s benefit. Resistance
is out there: bypassing Resistance is far less of an
issue than coping with Weakness, but that -20 can throw
of calculations, especially as Metal-Types aren’t so big
of raw damage. Overall though it is as I said: it is
good to be Metal.
Bronzong
is a Stage 1; this is not good but isn’t as painful as
being a Stage 2 right now. You’ll need an extra turn to
get Bronzong into play, and another card (which
to my knowledge is going to have to be a Bronzor).
Bronzong has 90 HP; this is small enough that a
competitive deck with a half decent set-up should score
a OHKO; Bronzong is thus never safe (it won’t
even be able to hit the field until a player’s second
turn) when Active. Even when on the Bench its still at
risk unless you include some form of protection for it
there: serious snipe attacks will make for an easy OHKO
while spread will add up relatively quickly. A deck
with damage counter manipulation for the opponent’s side
of the field can wreak quite a bit of havoc. The slight
upside is that this HP number makes the Weakness less
meaningful; most of them were already able to OHKO this
card but the benefit is in using weaker attacks and/or
spending less resources to secure the same OHKO. The
Resistance to Psychic-Types is handy but not something
to bet this card’s life on: a Mewtwo-EX can still
load up and go for the OHKO, it just won’t be as easy.
The three Energy Retreat Cost is not a good thing in
Standard; paying it is quite the pain though and that is
if you can meet the cost in the first place.
Fortunately it is pretty much SOP now that decks have
tricks to lower the cost of manually retreating or
bypass it entirely so much like Resistance is a small
bonus, this is only a mild drawback.
Bronzong
has its oh-so-important Ability that we’ve mentioned in
multiple CotDs of this top 10: Metal Links allows you,
once per turn, to attach a [M] Energy card from the
discard pile to one of your Benched Pokémon (before you
attack, of course). The effect does stack, so that for
each Bronzong with Metal Links, you can use that
specific copy’s Ability once per turn: three of them
means three uses of Metal Links. Currently the only
Energy card that is a legal target is basic Metal
Energy. We know from relatively recent experience
this at worst a solid trick for a deck and likely
something very, very potent. The attack - Hammer In -
is not: [MMC] for 60, even assuming you use Metal Links
to help build it, is badly overpriced and likely this
was intentional to avoid creating a “glass cannon” that
accelerates Energy to the next attacker. At least with
a Silver Bangle it still can hit for 90… and of
course you’re only attacking with it when you’re
desperate.
There is one Bronzor option for Standard (XY:
Phantom Forces 60/119) and one more for Expanded (BW:
Next Destinies 75/99): both are Metal-Type Basic
Pokémon with Fire Weakness and Psychic Resistance. XY:
Phantom Forces 60/119 sports 50 HP, a single Energy
Retreat Cost, and a single attack for [M] that does 10
points of damage: obviously you have to use it in
Standard. BW: Next Destinies 75/99 sports 70 HP
with a three Energy Retreat Cost and two attacks; the
first does 10 points of damage for [MC] plus an
additional 10 with a successful coin toss while the
second does 40 for [MCC] with no additional effects.
Being easier to retreat to the Bench versus having 20
more HP (the attacks are bad for both) is a tough call,
but use BW: Next Destinies 75/99 for Expanded. Bronzong
(BW: Next Destinies 76/99) is also legal in
Expanded: also Stage 1 Metal-Type Pokémon with Fire
Weakness and Psychic Resistance, it sports a massive
four Energy Retreat Cost but also 110 HP. Its Ability -
Heal Block - prevents the healing of damage counters
from Pokémon, which is great against certain decks but
usually not too important. Oracle Inflict - the attack
- costs [MCC] does 30 points of damage plus 10 more for
each card in your opponent’s hand: we lack an effective
combo to swell your opponent’s hand so the attack just
isn’t very good: stick to the version with Metal Links
as you’ll want as many of those as you can fit onto your
Bench.
Bronzong
is going to be the backbone of at least one new
Metal-Type deck. It is possible that - much like decks
built around Eelektrik - that the one deck will
become several using an almost identical strategy but
focusing on different attacks (including many that
aren’t Metal-Type but can make good enough use of the
Energy). Listing all the potential candidates is a bit
much even for one of my CotDs, so I’ll instead focus on
some Metal-Type Pokémon (with one exception) that have
long been waiting for this chance. Some of them have
already seen success elsewhere while others can only now
have their full potential easily tapped without the deck
benefitting something else even more… and most still
won’t make the cut but are worth mentioning. In
alphabetical order:
Links are included in the above list (yes, for once some
of the underlined set/card number pairings are actual
links) to the past reviews for cards when applicable. Aegislash-EX
and Dialga-EX were part of this top 10 and need
no more explanation. Cobalion and its Energy
Press are great for punishing the many Energy intensive
cards in the format and Iron Breaker is useful if your
opponent lacks an easy means of changing out his or her
Active or a non-reusable means that you can
attempt to exhaust: in either case as it is a “regular”
Basic Pokémon you’ll often be able to sacrifice one copy
for another to trade even with Pokémon-EX. Cobalion-EX
is not only your typical, solid Pokémon-EX but its
Righteous Edge does a solid 30 for one (useful when
something is wrong with Metal Links) while also
discarding a Special Energy attached to the Defending
Pokémon (if there is one) while Steel Bullet gets to
ignore Weakness, Resistance and all other effects on the
Defending Poké. Both Cobalion and Cobalion-EX
have seen a decent amount of competitive play, usually
splashed into decks thanks to Special Energy cards.
Those four seem like they should be a given, with only
exact counts or alternate strategies leaving them out of
a deck: some decks are going to just stick with (for
example) four Dialga-EX and nothing else for
Metal-Type attackers but I’d probably try to make room
for at least a single of each in a “general” build (then
again I’ve never run this deck so its all Theorymon).
The other suggestions then have to “bump” one of the
above four in order to make room, but they do have a
slight chance (perhaps better than slight if I’ve missed
something). Haxorus has to be its own deck with
Bronzong, with room for maybe one other backup
attacker, and is of course the non-Metal-Type exception:
as a BW-era Dragon-Type is does suffer for being Weak to
other Dragon-Types but its definitely a tempting card to
run because its first attack does 40 points of damage
for each [M] Energy attached to it. That still requires
a massive five [M] Energy (or four plus a Muscle Band
or Silver Bangle) to get into “OHKO virtually
everything” range, but it is feasible… and probably
something a lot of decks just aren’t expecting. That
140 HP on Haxorus is just enough to not be an
easy OHKO as well.
Heatran
is much more straightforward choice; a Basic Metal-Type
with the maximum 130 HP we see on “plain” Basic Pokémon,
sadly with the typical Fire Weakness (but at least also
the typical Psychic Resistance) and a painful three
Energy Retreat Cost, it does 40 for [MCC] but
that becomes 80 with a Stadium in play, which is
overpriced-but-functional and for [MMCC] it does
130 (and has to discard an attached Energy from itself).
130 is well within possible OHKO range, but its a bit
of a tricker OHKO for many decks, one that will usually
require some boosting to hit unless the deck is
specifically designed for OHKOs… and this is not
a Pokémon-EX. That last bit is obvious from looking at
the card but actually processing what that means… you
could combine Muscle Band or Silver Bangle
with Hypnotoxic Laser and Virbank City Gym
and the second attack can OHKO something with up to 180
HP (190 if it is a Pokémon-EX)... and you’re only giving
up one Prize if it gets OHKOed. Even if you aren’t
running all of those pieces of support, a reliable 130
sets up for a fairly easy follow-up KO. This is the
less technical, brute force counterpart to Cobalion.
Klinklang
(Black & White 76/114) received horrible reviews
because it was released before a lot of what later led
it to some great tournament finishes and before a
set rotation, as always a time of great tribulation and
speculation in the format. It is an Expanded only
option and it is still a long shot to use with
Bronzong as you’re talking about a Bench-sitting
Stage 2 to move [M] Energy about as well as a
Bench-sitting Stage 1 to accelerate Energy from the
discard pile, but the difficult set-up does make other
aspects of the deck (like changing out the Active
attacker in certain builds) less important. To get the
most out of these you’ll also have to make room for
Max Potion and several Startling Megaphone
(maybe one Tool Scrapper), but something like
this behind Dialga-EX could keep up a steady
barrage… and with only one Bronzong and
one Klinklang.
In Standard you could use
Klingklang
(BW:
Plasma Storm 90/135)
a.k.a. Klinklang [Plasma]. Instead of Energy
moving shenanigans, while your Abilities are working
your Metal-Type attackers can’t be damaged by attacks
from your opponent’s Pokémon-EX (effects of attacks
still apply). You won’t be using quite as fancy of
tricks and a lot of decks have non-Pokémon-EX attackers,
but forcing your opponent to rely on them for most of
the match when you’ve got something like Dialga-EX
up front and slamming away or Aegislash-EX also
protected from damage from attacks by Pokémon with
Special Energy attached and your opponent has an uphill
battle if you set-up. As mentioned in an earlier
CotD, if you’re very daring you can try to combine both
in Expanded: one Klinklang [Plasma], one Shift
Gears Klinklang and one Bronzong backing
up really any of the four primary suggested attackers?
Quite nasty… of course getting the whole set-up is also
quite nasty.
Registeel-EX
is Expanded only, much to its own regret: there are
multiple ways for decks to protect their Bench, but when
they are absent or countered this 180 HP Basic
Metal-Type Pokémon-EX can use its Triple Laser Attack
(requiring [CCC] to hit hit three different opposing
Pokémon from among the Active and the Benched for 30
points of damage. It isn’t much but it can set-up for
some nifty tricks (like allowing some of the other big
attackers pseudo-OHKOs from a single three-way 30 to the
opponent’s in play Pokémon-EX). It actually had some
success as a spread attacker before, though its usage
had declined even before it rotated out of Standard.
Unlike in the past, it would be easier to quickly
power-up its second attack - Protect Charge - to do 80
while reducing the damage it takes by 20 after Weakness
and Resistance for [MMCC]. Its not overly Energy
efficient but that’s why I am suggesting it for a deck
that can easily meet these Energy costs and likely meet
them in a single turn. You could make a very strange
build focusing on Registeel-EX and its slightly
defensive posture as with something like Keldeo-EX
and an attached Float Stone plus Max Potion,
your opponent would have to work for a OHKO. Your
choice whether to use Muscle Band or Hard
Charm… but such a deck is less competitive and more
“for fun”: a single copy though seems like a good choice
as you never know when some Bench damage is in order.
Again, pity that only applies for Standard.
So the special thing I wanted to mention about Expanded
usage ties into one of the main points I had planned for
comparing Bronzong with Eelektrik. The
quick head-to-head for Expanded usage is that both are
Stage 1 Pokémon being run for their respective Ability,
and that Ability only differs in name and what Energy
Type they attach. Eelektrik has the more
dangerous Fighting Weakness and has no Resistance, a
mark in favor of Bronzong (arguably two). Eelektrik
has a Retreat Cost of two but as this is Expanded,
Heavy Ball is legal and that actually makes the more
expensive Retreat Cost of Bronzong better.
You don’t want to attack with either, but if you do
Bronzong hits for 10 more damage with both attacks
costing [XXC] (where “X” is the same Type as that
Pokémon). Eelektrik can Evolve but Bronzong
can’t so that is a (very small) mark in favor of
Eelektrik (its Evolutions aren’t all that good), but
Tynamo are so tiny that I have to give
Bronzong the edge there. When it comes to partners…
a lot can use both just fine: Mewtwo-EX doesn’t
care whether its using Metal Energy or
Lightning Energy cards when it comes to X-Ball.
When it comes to whether Lighting Energy support
(direct and indirect) is better than Metal-Type support
(direct and indirect), I think it is a draw: I am
including the very indirect, like Rayquaza-EX
which is a Dragon-Type that uses Lightning Energy
(plus a source of [R]) for big attacks and several
impressive and established attackers, while Metal-Types
have some more recent direct support and its indirect
support, while less established is looking quite
promising.
So… I’m thinking Bronzong looks promising for
Expanded, largely because of Heavy Ball:
precious, precious Heavy Ball for the often high
Retreat Cost Metal-Type Pokémon. Bronzong has a
Retreat Cost of three, as does the Expanded legal
Bronzor. Aegislash-EX, Heatran, both
Klinklang (and at least one version each of
Klink and Klang) and Registeel-EX
all are legal Heavy Ball targets. Bronzong,
Bronzor, Klink and Klang are also
all Level Ball legal. Even being conservative
and just using Bronzong to back-up Aegislash-EX
and Heatran gives you a mono-Metal-Type deck that
won’t like Pyroar (XY: Flashfire 20/106)
but seems pretty solid to me. In Limited, this is a
potent pull though there are some places where it
doesn’t belong. If you’re going for a +39 deck or just
get too much that can’t make good enough use of the
Metal Energy: most cards in this set have
Colorless Energy requirements in at least one attack
though admittedly there are enough where you wouldn’t be
significantly enough ahead to justify running a Stage 1
you might never get set-up and some Metal Energy
to attach.
Ratings
Standard:
3.75/5 - Deck specific rating, though its possible this
could spawn several decks all making use of Metal Links
for Energy acceleration. That may seem almost harsh as
I do think these decks promising, but it is important to
understand that like Eelektrik decks before it
(well, some of them), that Bronzong decks will be
greater than the sum of their parts.
Expanded:
4/5 - I’m not kidding about how important Heavy Ball
(and some of the other older support) can be for
Bronzong decks. With Battle Compressor you
might not even need Ultra Ball to help discard
Energy (you’ll probably want to include it anyway) but
having three or four Heavy Ball is still going to
be a big benefit, and possible a few other older cards.
Limited:
4.25/5 - Most of the time I suspect this will be a must
run, though as per usual if you’ve got a minimum 1-1
line you won’t often get it into play in time to matter.
Skip it if you’re building a deck around a single,
Basic Pokémon-EX or if you just can’t justify the needed
room for the Stage 1 and the basic Metal Energy
because too few cards can use it well (I don’t expect
that to often be an issue, though).
Standard:
Bronzong is the key component to at least one
deck that will be heavily played until the novelty wears
off, and that is a worst-case-scenario where it turns
out nothing works as well as anticipated. If it isn’t
all hype, it’ll be the cornerstone of an archetype we’ll
be enjoying probably for a little while, maybe even
until it eventually rotates out of the format. It is
definitely one of the top cards in the set and I can see
why it clocked in as our number two choice, though I
only had it as my number three because when general use
hits deck specific, I tend to favor the former.
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